thread Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout in Payments Troubleshooting

Time-Based Category problem during checkout

eom408 — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 12:22:46 GMT

Hi, I have set up a time-based category as shown in the instruction page, I triple checked all items availability, prep time and settings, it all seem to work until they try to pay.

Customers were able to add items to the cart and proceed to checkout, but then after they entered their payment info and hit submit the order, they then receive a message saying some items in the cart are not available, please remove the items (this message usually shows in the cart and wouldn't even allow customers to proceed to checkout and entering personal info...etc).

Items were all available to order as soon as I turned off the time-based function, but we have some items that are only available on Sat and it would be helpful to be able to use that function.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Thanks in advance!

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

Goldneye — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 14:45:47 GMT

HI, hopefully this Square Support page will help.

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/7075-set-up-time-based-categories-in-your-square-online-store

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

AshleyK — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 14:53:39 GMT

@eom408 Let me know if you have everything set up like @Goldneye suggested. If so, we can keep digging on this.

Also, thank you so much @Goldneye!!

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

eom408 — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:19:30 GMT

Hi, thanks for the link, this is exactly how I set up, following the instructions on that page.

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

eom408 — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:20:54 GMT

Hi, thanks for the reply! Yes, everything was set up following that same instruction.

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

eom408 — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:32:24 GMT

@AshleyK @Goldneye do you know if it takes time for it to start working after I set up the category? I had it set up approx. a couple hours before I announced to our customers about our Sat per-orders, that’s when people started to order and encountered the problem at final submit order stage.

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

AshleyK — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 22:33:14 GMT

@eom408 the change should be instant, so I don't think that would be the issue. I know that we don't always response in real time over the Community, but we would need to see your settings with time based categories active to see more of what's going on. If you need this to be working ASAP for your business (which I understand), then definitely call into support so they can take a look in real time.

However; if you have some time to spare, please re-enable it and let us know if you're still having trouble so we can take a look at the details.

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

eom408 — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 01:43:41 GMT

Hi @AshleyK I called support, and found out it's because the items are only available for customers to order on that particular day, and can not be pre-ordered for that day ahead of time.

I thought if I set the category for Sat only availability, customers can still pre-order on any other days and pickup on Sat only. It would be awesome if this feature can be improved for a pre-order scenario. Thanks again for your input and help!

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

AshleyK — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 14:02:23 GMT

@eom408 thank you for letting me know! Yes, pre-order is a feature request. I'm sorry for missing that earlier, but I'm really glad you got everything working out! Please let me know if I can help in any other way. 🙂

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

hellyeah — Sun, 05 Feb 2023 23:51:24 GMT

are time-based categories no longer a "thing"? or are they only available on the $80/month plan?

i went to edit my categories and try this out, and don't have the option!

Re: Time-Based Category problem during checkout

JJ_ — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 23:52:07 GMT

Hello there @hellyeah

Time-Based Categories are available in all of our plans. Can you double-check under your Square Online Categories > Availability section, and confirm if you can find them there?